question before attempting an update on AFL

[Cengiz Gunay]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008, Bruce Perens wrote:

> [BP:] Isn't this Larry Rosen's license, not OSI's?

Yes, he has his signature under it. But it is OSI approved.

> [BP:] I think there is an issue of scientific integrity regarding a requirement to
> cite the paper. You are scored on legitimate citations to your articles for
> scientific reasons rather than licensing requirements, and this is an effort
> to inflate and distort that score by compelling others to cite you.
> 
> I believe it would be much more legitimate for them to cite the actual
> software. Perhaps there is a way of citing the actual software that would
> count as a publication and appear properly in supercite, etc.

[CG:] I disagree, but we may be talking about different things. I meant to 
require citing my paper that describes the software. That is, the 
definitive source that defines that software package. Obviously it would 
be illegitimate for me to ask them to cite an unrelated scientific paper. 
I think it is very reasonable to ask for a citation if a work has obtained 
its results using my software. I believe they are partially using the time 
and effort I put into the software for their own publication. That can be 
seen to be sufficient to grant me authorship (!), let alone a single 
citation.

On the other hand, in some cases, asking for placing a URL to the software 
web site should be acceptable. I would leave this part to the licensor and 
not clearly specify it in the license text, though. 

Cengiz Gunay
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